Leeds: Lionel Messi admitted that the ongoing Copa America is not his best tournament. He, however, stressed that Argentina’s progress to the semi-finals was important.
Argentina booked its semi-finals berth after defeating Venezuela 2-0 last night and will meet the hosts of the tournament, Brazil, on July 3 in the semis.
“The truth is that it’s not been my best Copa America, not what I expected. There are matches that occur in this way,” Goal.com quoted Messi, as saying.
“You cannot play a lot, it’s complicated for those of us who want to do something different, to avoid rivals. The
important thing is that we won and we continue,” he continued.
The Barcelona star Messi was able to score only once in four games so far. His goal came from a penalty corner in a match against Paraguay.
Moreover, Messi criticized the pitches and said it is difficult to play.
“We know it is fundamental that if we want to play the top three, we must run and help in defense. It is a cup match, anyone beats anyone. It is difficult to play, the pitches are bad. It is a shame that all the pitches are like this in a Copa America,” Messi said.
Argentina’s semi-finals berth is a surprise in itself as the team had lost its first match to Colombia 2-0 in the group stage and then played a stalemate with Paraguay 1-1 thanks to Messi’s goal.
Moving forward the team beat Qatar 2-0 to secure a place in the quarter-finals. If Argentina outclasses Brazil, they will enter their third consecutive Copa America final.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]